Step 5: Make It Pretty!

Step 6: Display And Commence Bragging

I used a softball display case (found on ebay for just under $20 with shipping) and ordered the plaque from a local trophy shop for about $8 - so, yea...

I'm a big Portal fan, and I've been wanting to make my own lemon grenade ever since I spotted this one last year. That one has a soundboard in the display base, but mine makes a "tick-tick-tick BOOM" sound when you pull the pin and press the handle, which is a fun little extra. (Here's a quick video of it in action.) It's a simple mod that shouldn't cost you more than $10 in materials - not including the display - and only requires a few hours to do.

(You can also see this tutorial on my blog, Epbot, where I have a few extra process photos - and I'm actually giving away one of my two lemon grenades over there next week, so feel free to mosey on over if you'd like a chance to win.)

Step 1: Materials

This is a simple mash-up of a toy grenade with a fake lemon, so obviously you're going to need a toy grenade and a fake lemon. :) I found my grenade (which comes with the speaker and sound effects) at a costume shop for $2.99, and the lemons are from Wal-Mart and I think cost about $2 each.

Other than that you'll need a small screwdriver to disassemble the grenade, a thin utility or craft blade, and beading pins to hold the two pieces together. Oh, and also a Dremel to drill the holes for the pins.

If you want to paint your grenade topper as I did, you'll also need matte black spray paint and some painter's tape.

I love this project! :) I'm new to making stuff, thought I'd try this as my first project. It's been fine so far, with one exception - "Step 3: The Grenade Topper". I've not managed to cut these off very well, or even, 1/2 of them have got a crack gone up them. How would you cut them off evenly without cracking them?

Haha, I just read this blog post the other day and then got my Instructables e-mail with this in it and went, "What?!" I didn't know you were on instructables so my first thought was that someone had ripped you off (though why anyone would try that after the Redbook debacle is beyond me).

This is pretty awesome. One question though, are the wires exposed around back or do they go through the lemon? I didn't see you mention it and I imagine it would be hard to get it around the cement in the center but I was just wondering.

Ha! Yeah, this is only my second Instructable - I love this place, but it's hard to find the time to add tutorials!

As for the wires, nothing is exposed, and nothing has to go through the center of the lemon. The wire only reaches from the top of the battery casing to the speaker, so the excess wire is just wrapped around the speaker and tucked inside the grenade cap - you can see it a little in my photo where I'm holding half of the cap in place.

I hope that makes sense - it's always so much easier to show with photos than it is to explain with these pesky "words" and such. ;)

Oh wow, no that makes complete sense. For some reason I made the false assumption that the battery was in the bottom of the lemon instead of the top.

Yeah I sometimes have trouble finding the time as well. I'm trying to streamline things by uploading pictures on here the same time that I upload them for my blog, and then by trying to make them similar enough that I can just copy/paste my posts into instructable form.

I can't think of a better project to do on Superbowl Sunday, than build a lemon granade following these well-written instructions except for the cigar-and-cigarette fort I made several years ago while waiting for my mom to return home from her vacation.

I have an idea how to make one that actually explodes (but is harmless). You first make the pin with a match on attached to it. Then you build the head of the grenade with the hole for the pin surrounded in sandpaper. Afterwards you hollow out a lemon and put a firecracker inside of it with the fuse near the match head. Thus, when you pull the pin from the grenade, it lights the firecracker fuse and explodes.

"All right, I've been thinking. When life gives you lemons? Don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back! Get mad! 'I don't want your dang lemons! What am I supposed to do with these?'" "Demand to see life's manager! Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons! Do you know who I am? I'm the man who's going to burn your house down! With the lemons! I'm going to get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that burns your house down! [cough]"